Nissan Leaf reaches pre-order target of 20,000

Nissan has put a stop on all pre-orders of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle after announcing the 20,000-unit target has been reached. Nissan has said that no more orders of the car will be taken until next year.

The company has also received 6000 pre-orders from Japan-based customers, taking the order form quantity to 26,000. Nissan is only planning to produce 10,000 of the zero tail-pipe emission cars from now until March 2011.

Nissan started taking pre-orders for the Leaf in April this year in America and Japan, the Americans even had to pay a US$99 reservation fee for the order. The company is now happy that it has ‘educated’ consumers enough about the car that there is a feasible number committed to purchase.

Speaking of education, Nissan is apparently screening potential customers to make sure their driving style and habits are suited to the Nissan Leaf philosophy. We’re not sure what that means exactly; driver’s who attempt to overtake a slower motorist on the freeway are rejected, perhaps?

Nissan is also addressing ‘first in, best dressed’ priority to those who have made orders, and will sell the first 10,000, to the first 10,000 applicants… so long as they passed the screening test of course.

Nissan has said the Leaf won’t hit the international market until the end of 2011, so we don’t expect it here until then.